Gingerbread Cookies
by Sonic Jules
Summary: Ten and Rose ... The Doctor and Rose land in London. While he fixes the TARDIS, she attempts to fix him a treat. Two chapters total.
1. A Burning Desire To Bake

**Gingerbread Cookies**

_By Sonic Jules_

**.**

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and the characters of said show do not belong to me, no matter how hard I've wished for it. Even now I am writing a letter to Santa with high hopes. No infringement meant to the owners and associates, nor BBC. :o)

**.**

**A/N:** Happy holidays to everyone. This is from me to you.

**.**

**Chapter One:**

**A Burning Desire To Bake**

**.**

Sweat trickled down her back as the thick smoke dissipated within the little kitchen, Rose waving a cookie sheet to swoosh it out the window she'd opened. She coughed, then fought the tears threatening to fall. This was all going so very, very wrong.

Cookies. He'd spoken of a fondness for those gingerbread cookies with grinning faces just once in passing. But she'd latched onto the idea and held it ever since. Next trip home, she was determined to fix him home made biscuits just like he described. She'd even use those edible ball bearings he was so fond of for buttons.

Now he was out in the TARDIS, working on the ship's maintenance issues and all alone, while she was supposed to be visiting with her mum, "vacationing" - his word, not hers - and catching up on the local gossip whilst planning the holiday that he dreaded participating in. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy Christmas. But Christmas with Jackie and Mickey and the many yakking neighbors who talked too loud with liquored breath was not something he was looking forward to. But he'd do it, for her. So making him the cookies? It was the least Rose felt she could do.

She'd come home only to find a note on the table, Jackie leaving it on the off chance that her wayward daughter would show up, explaining her trip to the country to take care of the aunt who'd broken her leg and ...

Rose huffed in frustration, sitting down none too gently in a kitchen chair. She threw her dish towel down on the table, watching a puff of flour rise in its wake. The blackened third attempted batch of gingerbread cookies were still spiraling thin lines of smoke toward the ceiling; a mild contrast now to the flour dust. Not only had she emptied her mum's cupboards by mixing ingredients many times over, but she'd also managed to make a royal mess of things, not to mention using the fire extinguisher (though only once) as her cooking techniques failed time and time again.

Tears threatened to fall once more, and this time she let them.

Soon realizing her pity-party was getting nothing accomplished, and having a vision of Jackie returning home and finding the place in the mess she'd created, Rose shoved up from the table and stepped to the counter, pulling the lid off from the cookie jar. She reached deep down, her fingers scraping the bottom, removing her hand only when she had grasped what she'd been rooting for. Unfolding the currency, she straightened and counted it at the same time. There was enough to replace the ingredients she'd all but used up and to get a few extra cleaning supplies as well. She sighed. This was indeed the worst 'vacation' she could recall. Bloody hell.

**O**o**O**

The Doctor walked cheerfully into Powell Estates, pleased to have finished his repairs ahead of time, though dreading the thought of Jackie's wicked pout as he came to take Rose away again. They'd be back for the coming holiday though, he'd promised Rose as much.

Knocking calmly on the door, he listened, expecting to hear Rose and Jackie carrying on about something or another, or at least hear the sounds of approaching footsteps in answer to his knock. Hearing neither, he knocked louder, confusion crossing his face at the continued silence greeting him.

Waiting was not nor had never been a virtue of the Time Lord, and all too soon he retrieved his sonic screwdriver and let himself inside the apartment. The first thing he noticed was the smell of something burning.

"Hello in there? Jackie cooking again?" he hollered too cheerfully toward the kitchen. When silence was the only response he received, he quickened his steps. "Bit rude, me knocking and no one letting me in. Good thing I don't take offense very easily," he said as he continued, He stopped just before reaching his destination, his attention drawn to a large note taped to the wall. He pulled his reading glasses from his jacket and put them on, then took the memo down to read it.

"Mum," he began, reading out loud. "Gone to replace what I used. PLEASE DON'T GO IN THE KITCHEN! I'll explain everything when I get back, and I'll clean it all up then, too. Love, Rose."

So, Rose had been experimenting in the kitchen, not Jackie, and it hadn't gone well, he imagined. Well, the note said for Jackie not to enter. It said nothing about him staying put.

Taking off his specs and replacing them in his pocket, the Doctor stepped into the kitchen, a look of concern mixed with utter disbelief crossing his handsome features. Oh, this ... this was ... well, it was what it was. There was flour on nearly every conceivable surface - but no, hang on a tick - he knelt to the floor and passed his index finger through what looked to be whipped cream. Lifting the digit to his lips, he tasted it.

"Hmm. Potassium bicarbonate," he said to himself. "Ah! Of course! She used a fire extinguisher. Oh!" He looked around the room a little more, seeing the cookie tray on top of the kitchen table. Within its raised edges were blackened bits of something, but even he could not hazard a guess as to what they were meant to be. Beneath the pan was a pot holder, its corner sticking out slightly. Beneath that, he saw what appeared to be another note.

Pulling out his glasses once more, he looked it over. "Ah," he said to no one, realizing that Jackie was out of town. So why hadn't Rose simply returned to the TARDIS? What was all this mess about, anyway?

The Doctor looked around the room and sighed. Wherever the notion to make this cooking attempt came from, Rose would surely be in no mood to clean up the aftereffects when she returned. And since he had nothing to do at the moment, the least he could do was help. Taking off his coat and jacket, then rolling up his shirt sleeves, he found a ruffled apron hanging on the back of a chair. Donning it, the Lord of Time admired his reflection in the window before he began the very domesticated task of cleaning the kitchen.

**.**

**OoO**

.


	2. Gingerbread Smiles

**Gingerbread Cookies**

By Sonic Jules

**.**

**_Previously in chapter one..._**

_The Doctor looked around the room and sighed. Wherever the notion to make this cooking attempt came from, Rose would surely be in no mood to clean up the aftereffects when she returned. And since he had nothing to do at the moment, the least he could do was help. Taking off his coat and jacket, then rolling up his shirt sleeves, he found a ruffled apron hanging on the back of a chair. Donning it, the Lord of Time admired his reflection in the window before he began the very domesticated task of cleaning the kitchen. _

**_._**

**Chapter Two:**

**Gingerbread Smiles**

**.**

A little more than an hour later found the Doctor looking around the small kitchen with a satisfied twinkle in his eyes. He'd cleaned and scrubbed - far better than he supposed Jackie ever had - and had narrowed the disaster down to a pile of dishes in the sink, awaiting placement in the dishwasher. All but the baking pans. There was nothing he could do to save them here, though he could take them to the TARDIS and ... well, hopefully Rose was purchasing new ones while she was out.

Every surface had been scrubbed down and wiped. Every cupboard had been restored to its original shine, no longer dusted with flour and smoke residue. Even the floor now looked like it was supposed to, probably more so than it had in quite a while, the Doctor mused. He was just reaching behind himself to untie the apron when he heard the front door handle being turned. He pushed a chair up to the table and stepped toward the doorway.

"Mum? You home? I told ya in the note not to go in the kitchen. I'm gonna clean all that -"

"Surprise!" the Doctor smiled widely, popping out suddenly in front of Rose.

"Doctor! What're you doin' here?" she questioned excitedly, startled by his appearance.

"Well I came to let you know the TARDIS had been repaired. Imagine my surprise when I realized there'd been an explosion in the kitchen."

"Nothin' exploded," she said rather briskly as she set down the bags she'd carried in, then folded her arms across her chest.

"No? Some sort of natural phenomena then? A tornado perhaps?" The Time Lord watched as her shoulders lost some of their stiffness. "I suppose it could've been an alien invasion," he offered, watching as her lips twitched upward just a bit. "Oh! I know! Jackie doing a bit of redecorating, then?"

Finally her arms uncrossed and she smiled, giggling just a little at his silliness. "I did it," she admitted. "An' now I'm gonna clean it up." Rose pushed past the Doctor then froze as she sucked in a breath. "Oh my God. You -" she turned to him, "did you - did you clean all this?"

"I told you the ship's been fixed. I didn't have anything else to do when I arrived, and no one was here, so I -"

"Wow," she said, looking all around the room before looking at him again.

He squinted his eyes at her appraisingly. "'Wow' is right. You went out? Looking like ... _That_?"

Rose stared at the Time Lord blankly for a full ten seconds before abruptly turning around and walking toward the loo. Once inside the room, she turned on the light and looked in the mirror, oblivious of the footsteps indicating the Doctor's approach.

Her face was a contrast in darkly smeared make-up or soot - she wasn't sure which - and flour, with streaks running down her cheeks where tears had fallen and cleaned their path. The flour in her hair had no resemblance whatsoever to an actual flower, clumped here and there in erratic patterns.

When his image appeared in the mirror behind hers, she didn't notice. She was too busy staring at herself as little sobs escaped her tightened lips and fresh tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Oh Rose, don't cry. I'm sure by now you've already started some new fashion trend," he stated jovially. Unfortunately, she didn't take it with the good nature it was intended, and began crying in earnest.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her back into his hold. She leaned back into his chest, hiccupping slightly as she tried to calm down. "So tell me," he began softly, reaching around her to grab a flannel hanging beside the sink. "What brought all this about?"

She watched as he used one hand to turn on the spigot and dampen the wash cloth, all the while keeping her secured closely to him with his other. Once the flannel was damp, he began washing her face with soft strokes, patiently waiting for her to answer him.

"Cookies," she replied quietly around the flannel.

"Cookies? As in biscuits?"

Rose nodded. The Doctor set the flannel down on the sink and began picking the small clumps of flour from her hair. "Go on," he prompted.

"You said you liked gingerbread cookies," she sniffled. He grabbed a tissue from the box on the counter and handed it to her. "Since Mum wasn't home I thought I'd make you some. Surprise you with 'em since you were out there workin' hard fixin' up the ship. But I must've read the directions wrong or missed some of the ingredients, 'cause they kept burnin' up. I tried three different times and I couldn't even make you somethin' as simple as little biscuits. I mean, I've conquered ghosts and Daleks, but I couldn't manage followin' some easy recipe."

The Doctor turned Rose around to face him, noting new tears threatening to fall. He hugged her closely. "Oh Rose! It wasn't your fault. I checked the oven while I was cleaning it. The thermostat was broken. Without a thermometer there was no way for you to know it was probably double the temperature you'd set it for. I'd've felt the difference right away, but that's me, of course. Honestly, anything put in there before would be turned into jerky in minutes. I dare say your mother hasn't used that oven in a very long while. I fixed it, by the way."

He pushed her shoulders a bit until he was able to look into her eyes. "You're all right, aren't you? You didn't get burned or inhale much of the smoke, did you?"

She giggled nervously as she wiped her nose with the tissue. "No, I'm all right. Really."

"Good. Because now that I think about it, I'd like to go out for a bit. Perhaps stop by a bakery. You think they'll have some gingerbread?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Right. Come on then."

Suddenly Rose began giggling, causing the Doctor to frown. "What?"

She pointed at him, trying to control her snickers. "You look rather cute in my mum's apron. Plannin' on wearin' it out, then?"

He grinned at her, enjoying the humor she'd found from his attire. "I think I look rather fetching, if I do say so myself," he pronounced proudly, though he did remove the garment, dropping it in the hamper. "Perhaps I'll just wear my jacket and coat." He lead Rose into the hallway, helping her to retrieve the bags she'd dropped and carry them into the kitchen. Placing them on the table, he pulled on his suit jacket and coat then held out his arm.

"Shall we?"

Rose smiled as she nodded, grasping his arm with her hand. "Thanks. You know, for takin' care of all this. And me."

They hugged. "You're welcome," he replied.

**The End.**

**_Have A Merry and Safe Holiday!_**

**_._**


End file.
